Another TV interview at No Culpes A La Noche

No Culpes a la Noche TV show with Mathias Brivio tonight at Canal N. Thirty-minute interview and able to talk more things about Gloria del Pacifico.

Morro de Arica digital composite

Mmm....Inspiration....

Editing days -as many in the field would know- are quite time-demanding and concentration-packed. It even gets to a point where I lose track of time and space and without noticing, it is already evening. Pulling aproximately 14 hours non-stop (only to eat and stretch) is rewarding when results start to pay off. Difficult scenes like the Heroes Oath or Bolognesi's Answer are past now and the inmiment ending battle scenes for "Gloria del Pacifico" are closer.

Sometimes, even though it is a post-production job (I'm in the editing stage yet), one day or two I devote to some elaborate digital montage or compositions to know if the things filmed prior-hand will look as planned, like this one here for example.

Chilean Sargeant Major De la Cruz Salvo was ordered by general Baquedano to blast peruvian fortresses far away at the morro with his artillery from a hill afar. The original footage (shot back in December 2011...wow, almost 2 years from now!) was filmed at the top of the Morro Solar facing the sea toward the Chira beach. Waited for the time that would somewhat match the correct time this event happened for real. As you can see from a still capture of the orginal footage, far below theres a long strip of beachland and a flat surface inland and a small strip of hills that enter a bit into the sea. That natural beach curve resembles nicely the real Arica bay and that hill afar is where the actual Morro de Arica would be, so the task was to put behind the actors and far away, the morro, the town-city of Arica, the train station and railroad track near the beach and the Manco Capac monitor ship floating in the bay with natural reflections in the water.

Being a moving shot, the camera rises to reveal more of the city below and see an actor enter the frame obscuring the morro afar. Got myself some pictures of the morro I had taken last year when in Arica from atypical angles I'd need for the film scenes, the rest would need to be taken from pics found online of other mountanius formation and shape them/blend them in Photoshop and import them into my digital video compositor. Some frame-by-frame rotoscopy had to be made in order to separate the actors and soldiers into layers from far away objects. The Manco Capac ship is a picture taken of the miniature I had made some time ago for other scenes near the end. Being a far away object and in the sea, motion was not needed so just a picture would do the job. Only thing was to just match the angle of view and lighting. Far below, the city was made in a 3D program and the peruvian fortresses of Ciudadela and Este were also done with some sand-bag trench pictures together with pics of my cannons and put together afar with the flag and pole. At the top of the morro afar, the big Vavasseur and More's battery together with the big peruvian flag. Motion track the footage, color correct it and apply some digital fog in the background and the shot is ready to rock n' roll!!

The original footage shot at the Morro Solar here back in 2011. Lots to rotoscopy and form the layers.

Layer compositing.

Peruvian flags composited to be placed atop the morro.

Pictures of the cannons made for the film.

3D city of old Arica to be placed below.

Final touches and color correction.

The final shot: screen capture of the final digital composite 2 days later.

 Now....off to sleep and continue editing the film tomorrow. Just a happy moment of a task achieved. :)

Editing the Hero's Oath and Bolognesi's Answer scenes

A few days ago I just finished editing the scene known in history as the "Hero's Oath" (Juramentación de los Heroes), event that happened in real life on May 28, 1880, two days after the Alto de la Alianza battle and ten days before the Morro's siege. The curious thing is that now -october 2013- I'm editing scenes shot back in January 2011...two and a half years later!!

Editing & Post-Production: the final stage.

It is indeed a long but important scene and moment in the development of Gloria del Pacifico's storyline and in the war itself. Any history buff will enjoy as much as I did seeing all the heroes sitting next to each other in a big table dining and discussing possible scenarios and strategies. Also important in it is that Crl. Agustin Belaunde pissed off everyone by stating that it would be better to surrender. An action that caused quite a stir in the other officers and cemented his reputation as a coward in the future (4 days later he would defect Arica and his batallion and escape into the night). Such a pleasure to have actor Juan Manuel Ochoa portray this character in all its glory.

Screen capture: Crl. Agustin Belaunde (Juan Manuel Ochoa)

Preapring the shot.

Today, just started editing the Bolognesi's Answer scene (La Respuesta de Bolognesi) and excited to give form and shape to one of peruvian history's most recognized and heroic moment ever giving birth to the most known phrase of all time: "I have sacred duties to fulfill and I'll fulfill them until I burn the last cartridge" (Tengo deberes sagrados que cumplir y los cumpliré hasta quemar el último cartucho).

This scene gives me such an emotion as it's probably the culprit of all I'm doing this for: Fatherland sense renewal and renovation of our heroes's deeds.

The dining scene.

Behind the scenes: The heroe's oath: an important scene.

Being part of history in a way here....

Screen capture: Bolognesi's answer scene: a paramount moment.

Behind the scenes: Filming the answer scene.

Music score progress

Tonight sunday I had another late night meeting with Fernando De Lucchi who is composing Gloria del Pacifico's film score.

Got himself a new system based mainly on Mac based Logic Audio and MOTU audio interfaces. The recently aquired symphony orchestra sample library seems to sound much more realistic as I heard from prior times and Fernando is catching up speed on its use with the new workstation. Now I can share the same peace of mind that sound realism is a reality now for I was very much mind-set on the use of real instruments together with realistic instrument audio samples to make the sonic landscape more pure as a real symphony orchestra but because of higher costs involved in hiring an ensemble, I think I have to let go off that idea and focus all in sample based audio. The film's costs have skyrocketed a bit in the end. Thank God I made many things myself otherwise it owuld have costed way much more risking the completion of the whole project.

But all in all, the sound emananting from those speakers sounded pretty much like real instruments. Technology has catched up to one's vision from the time I started the film 3 years ago. Hearing the score for Alfonso Ugarte and Timotea Vernal scenes were a delight and can picture it clearly in my head.

Gave Fernando a mid-res copy of some rough-cut scenes from the film to have him get a hold of the feel of it. Being such a professional in the music field for decades, I trust his talent very much so. Connection in vision is the key. Also planning on giving him a song melody for the Bolognesi death scene. Had it in my mind since early times of this. He will be orchestrating it.

Can't wait to hear all the music recorded and merged with the film.
Until the next meeting in a week.

Testing the wind digital instrument. Sounds pretty real.

Listening the score.

Showing Fernando the rough-cuts of the film to give him a feel of it.

Looking at the past

Getting ready now to film the scenes with Rosa Vernal (Alfonso Ugarte's mother). All these is finally approaching its end and will be wrapping up in March with Reynaldo Arenas and Pold Gastello's war survivor scenes.

I guess the last things to be filmed will be just the special effects shots of the war ship models and green screen sailors to be placed in them and motion-tracked to follow the ship's moves. Will be a bit of a challenge but pushing the digital effects has been quite a ride so far and looking good. Thinking of doing the water all in digital form for mimicking waves to be in the appropriate proportion to the miniature ship models (almost 2 meters long each) is a bit of dilemma still to be resolved. In case it is, then it will all be shot entirely real. I'm still thinking hard and checking out some old school techniques.

Looking back on all the war battle scenes footage and the interior ones makes me feel wistful. All the efforts, all the hurdles, all the mishaps and all the troubles gone thru to make these all happen is simply such an exciting thing and like a dream come true. Must be similar to a mother giving birth to its child. 12 films already and I haven't felt this big of a excitement. Its yet my most demanding and ambitious film so far. That's why I thank all who have helped make my dream come true once more. So far...the biggest one.

Quite a ride all these years...
I thank the Lord above and all my good friends for helping me make this happen :)